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Written by Isabel Allende

• Format: Hardcover, 448 pages
 
• Publisher: Vintage
• On Sale: July 19, 2011
• Price: $26.95
• ISBN: 978-0-307-94794-9 (0-307-94794-7)

about this book

SPANISH LANGUAGE EDITION

From internationally beloved and bestselling author Isabel Allende, a frank and contemporary story about a young girl who, while struggling to overcome drug addiction and wrestle her demons, finds respite in the foreign landscape of a remote Chilean Island.

While hiding out in Chiloé, an island off the coast of Chile, nineteen-year-old Maya tells the story of her life to pass the time. In doing so, she recounts a story of drug deals and drug addiction, rehab and relapse, sex and blackmail, and just about everything in between. The daughter of a young pilot and Danish air hostess, Maya is raised by her paternal grandmother Nini and her grandmother's second husband, an African American astronomer and Berkeley professor. After her grandfather's death leaves her family shattered, then sixteen-year-old Maya is left directionless and without proper guidance, and her decent into the darkest corners of society begins. In the years to come, Maya will face everything from drug addiction to rape; she will steal, blackmail, and launder money. She will rehabilitate and relapse, until finally her exile to Chiloé and her journal, both done at her grandmother's behest, provide the catharsis and respite that she needs.